Hey,

So I had recently purchased my first Speedmaster and was wondering how many times I should wind the thing to take advantage of the full power reserve? My AD said 40 turns, but that is not giving me 40 hours of the watch functioning.

Can anyone set this straight for me lol?

 

Is it a brand new Speedmaster? I never count turns, just wind until you feel resistance.

 

It's brand new, and will winding until it stops or "gives resistance" damage the movement?

 

You can keep winding until you suddenly feel heavier resistance. This will indicate the spring is fully wound and should give you the advertised power reserve.

I never wound my old Speedmaster to that point though and wound it just enough to make it to the next day. Which was 33 turns.

 

It's not that delicate, you would have to try hard to damage the movement this way. You will feel it get noticably harder to turn, stop then. It should not take a lot of torque.

 

I'd say it is between 40-50 turns depending on how much rotation you get out of each turn.
That is 40-50 turns after it has already stopped of course
If I wind it daily, I get about half of that obviously, usually around 20 turns.
And you should definitely feel it "resist", practically a stop as long as you aren't really cranking it

 

Good point. You will be wearing the watch regularly, so you need to know the stopping point. I wind mine once a day when I put it on, and sometimes I give it a couple of turns before I put it to bed at night.

Just to clarify, when @vbrad26 says 40-50 turns after it stops, he means after the watch has run through its power reserve. Don't try to wind it 40-50 additional turns after it stops winding.

 

Thanks for the responses. Oddly enough, mine takes more than 80 winds to reach the point of resistance?

 

Can we have a sticky on this question?

 

What model exactly?

 

I don't have the exact reference, but it's the just recently discontinued Speedmaster professional Hesalite.

 

So I guess that would be a cal 1861. I don't own one currently, but in my recollection, it would typically take 40-50 winds (depending on how your fingers wind the crown) to reach the point where the crown won't turn any further. The cal 861 is similar. I'm not talking about slight resistance, but a dead stop. I'd be quite surprised to be able to turn the crown 80 times. Maybe other people can share their experiences.

 

Given how hard the crown is to wind, I'm guessing that maybe I'm getting a full wind for every 2 or 3 turns I make, these crowns are hard as he'll to wind and I don't have fat hands

 

If you care enough, you can actually count the number of turns. A turn is a turn, as judged by the Omega symbol on the crown.

 

In the instructions a turn means one full rotation. When I wind a watch I would be lucky to get a full rotation with 2 winds, ie grip the crown between forefinger and thumb and turn would be about 1/2 rotation.

 

did your AD also say and advise, "and take a deep breath 40 times?"

 

The "advice" given by the AD seems a bit strange to me... As others have already indicated, wind it until there's resistance and then stop. This will not damage the movement. I do wear my "FOIS" quite often and wind it exactly that way (caliber 1861). And if it helps, I do have an OMEGA Geneve from the 1960s which is hand wound. Despite I am not wearing it too often, I do wind it in exact the same way as my Speedy, until there's little resistance. And it is working fine. I haven't counted the turns ever... Enjoy your new watch and hopefully you will count a lot of beautiful moments while you are having it on the wrist instead of the turns to wind it!

 

Believe me, I'm hoping to enjoy many special moments with this watch and that's why I'm trying to make sure that I'm caring for it properly.

 

I actually think the advice given to you was pretty spot-on, because I think most people, including myself would agree with about 40 turns from a depleted power reserve to fully wound.
It will get easier to wind the more you do it, don't worry.
It just sounds like you aren't getting full turns each time. I'm confident you'll know when to stop winding.

 

Just turn carefully until you feel resistance